Just a blog

Well the day finally came around where I got the puzzles for the final challenge. Too make a long story short, there’s no way that I came remotely close at winning the grand prize. I knew I wasn’t gonna as soon as I got to the first puzzle. It was the symbol challange but on a full sudoku layout (9×9 grid). It took me probably 20 minutes to get through that puzzle. Then it was on to the the restoration puzzle (swapping out sploches of paint until only one sploch was left), which I got through fairly quickly (less than 10 minutes). Then it was my demise.. the curator’s puzzle (hanging pictures on hooks when there are more hooks than pictures). Try as I may, and boy did I try and try and try… I had a hard time completing it. And in the weeee hours of the morning I gave up to try again in the morning. So I went to bed (see I knew I wasn’t going to win), thinking with a fresher perspective I’d be able to do it. So once I woke up, I continued on my quest. I was bound and determined to finish it…. just to say I finished. And finally…. I finished the curators challenge! Now on to the 4th (and I think the most evil), it was the chess challange (get to checkmate in 3 moves). Since I’m chess-impaired, I did it the best way I know how. Process of elimination… I tried every conceivable combo until I got through it (and it didn’t take me THAT long). Now on to the final puzzle, it was a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle with the picture being a video clip. It was fairly easy and only took me a few minutes to finish. And then I was DONE! FINISHED! I completed the final phase! I may have only won the cryptex… but I am a proud winner of the cryptex.

Just over 3 weeks ago in order to promote the upcoming movie Google and Sony Pictures launched the Da Vinci Code quest. The quest, over the course of 24 days, consisted of logic puzzles. As a fan of logic puzzles, I was eager to play and looked forward to each day’s puzzle. Some of puzzles I found easy (especially with using Google’s search for the answers) and there were some that were a bit more challenging. The game consisted of 2 phases. Phase I is open to anyone that has a Google ID. Then there’s Phase II (due to start in a few days) thats only open to first 10,000 that finish Phase I. The 10,000 finalists do get a prize with the winner of Phase II getting the Grand Prize (http://flash.sonypictures.com/movies/davincicodequest/us/prizing/).

Phase I was completed on May 10th and of course, the finalists wouldn’t be notified until May 15th. On May 10th, I anxiously awaited for the last puzzle to be activated so I could complete it. I kept refreshing screen and t my HORROR, I was getting a server busy page. THEN… the server thought I was a BOT! Oh MY! What to do.. I tried it with FF then IE… I finally got IE to work. I frantically watched the video to get the answers and completed the puzzle and registration as fast as possible.

Then I waited.. and waited (for a week!).. and let me tell you.. I don’t wait well . The rules said I should be notified on May 15th if I was a finalist. So all day long today, I kept periodically checking my email… and there was no email by the time I left the office at 6pm. I swore I finished the game within minutes…. but was that enough to be a finalist. Then when I got home today.. and saw a little white box! I tore open the box.. and what did I find…..

Then my email reaffirmed what the cryptex in the snail mail had indicated.

Least to say, I was quite happy and danced around with glee when I got my prize. This is what I really wanted when I started playing the game. Wish me luck in the finals!

busy busy busy… thats what its been like the past few weeks. But I did take a little time off from work to do something fun…..

I just got back from my (now) yearly trip up north to the garlic festival. Last year was my first year going. However, I’ve been wanting to go for a few years. So when I got an invite from my brother & sister-in-law, I jumped at the chance. It was a win-win situation for me. I get to spend some time with my sister-in-law (& brother), and I get to go to the festival.

Well the festival was one of the highlights of the weekend. I got up to the San Jose area fairly early on Friday morning, so we decided we were going to go shopping (after our Starbucks fix of course). After visiting my brother at his work, we stopped for a yummy lunch at a little mexican restaurant close to my my brother’s work. They make some strong margaritas, which were quite good. Then we decided to shop. I picked up a bunch of little goodies for the house and a cute pair of pants and a new top. Had a nice dinner, and just relaxed at the house for the rest of the evening (we were going to have to get up early the next morning for the festival .

We drove down early for the festival, arriving there before the doors (or the ticket booth) even opened. We were practically the first peeps in line. Once we got in, we made a bee line for the food. Among some of the things we munched on are: garlic ice cream, garlic fries, stuffed mushrooms (with garlic, parmesean cheese and parsley), garlic sausage sandwhich, shrimp scampi and a buffalo kabob. Many of the foods we split between us 3 and we were so stuffed when left. Then we shopped for all things garlic (and since I didn’t write everything down I may of missed a few purchases). One of my favorite purchases this year, is my garlic bobble head (click here to view). I’m going to try and get one every year (well maybe). One of the yummier things I picked up was the garlic kettle corn. It is very good, so much so I had a couple of orders from a few co-workers. That pretty much sums up my the festival. The rest of the weekend consisted of a little pampering (mani/pedi), a little drinking (some yummy drink recipe from the Mirage in LV) and dinner with my sister-in-law’s mom. All in all, it was a busy and fun weekend.

For photos of the weekend, check out Garlic Festival Photos

Ciao!

I decided that I wanted to play tag. Picture tag that is. I thought this site was quite cool. I’ve been popping into it every couple of days to see if anyone else is playing too. So far it only looks like its been me and Lizziedaisy have been the only ones using pictures we’ve taken with our cameras. Hopefully we’ll see others getting in the spirit and post some of their snapshots on the next ‘tag subject’.

Check out the site here.

On a previous trip to Las Vegas, we decided to take book a day trip to the Grand Canyon. I was quite surprised how much fun I had on the guided tour. Along the way we had also stopped at Hoover Dam. We visited the west rim of the Grand Canyon and once we arrived I was awe at how big it really was. I think one of the best parts of this trip was being able to walk to the edge of the rim of the canyon and peering down the canyon. Although the times I did do this, I would experience a bit of vertigo